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THE RYERSON INDEX

to contemporary death notices and obituaries in Australian newspapers

WHAT SORT of COVERAGE DOES the SMH PROVIDE?

The table below compares the total deaths recorded in NSW each year with the total notices published in the SMH. Monthly figures showing the average daily number of notices published, are also given.

There is a clear declining trend in the number of notices published, despite a gradual increase in the number of deaths occurring. We put this trend down to two factors:

the increasing cost of inserting a death notice
the increasing proportion of residents with ethnic origins, for whom publication of a death notice is not a natural action, or who are more likely to use an ethnic-language newspaper to notify of a death, rather than the SMH.

The figures for actual death registrations from 1972 until the present were supplied, and are used, with the permission of the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Figures for earlier years are taken from the "Official Yearbook of the Commonwealth of Australia", published by the ABS.

To compare the Registry figures with the SMH figures, we have divided the yearly SMH total by the corresponding Registry total, to give the SMH inclusion rate as a raw percentage.

Such a calculation can only give an approximation, because of factors such as:

deaths which are the subject of more than one notice over a number of days. A sample of our data shows about 3.6% of SMH deaths fall into this category.
deaths which occur interstate or overseas, and so do not count in the NSW stats, but have a notice published. A sample of our data shows about 6.7% of SMH deaths fall into this category.

These figures suggest that about 10-11% of SMH deaths should be excluded when comparing the SMH figures to those from the Registry, thus the raw percentage should be reduced by this amount.

In the table below, the monthly figures of the average number of death notices published per day give a rough guide to trends, but can be skewed by such factors as the number of Saturdays in the month, and in the case of March or April, when Easter occurs.

Further figures are added to the table as each months' notices are completed. Percentages are only calculated when a year has been completely indexed.

YEAR	DEATH REGS	SMH DEATHS	RAW SMH %	JAN	FEB	MAR	APR	MAY	JUN	JUL	AUG	SEP	OCT	NOV	DEC
1969	40,665	26,099	64%	75	69	74	73	81	97	98	100	88	83	83	83
1970	43,601	27,504	63%	73	73	78	77	86	100	122	105	91	82	85	82
1971	41,691	26,654	64%	81	72	75	78	92	94	104	104	86	82	78	78
1972	42,865	26,652	62%	73	75	73	84	90	94	101	98	91	80	79	87
1973	44,085	25,186	57%	76	79	75	74	84	86	87	89	87	78	72	80
1974	44,663	27,479	62%	79	74	74	79	84	107	123	100	95	86	77	79
1975	40,484	24,782	61%	72	74	77	75	83	89	92	82	89	73	73	77
1976	42,098	25,796	61%	70	71	74	71	83	99	108	98	87	77	76	72
1977	40,338	24,337	60%	73	74	71	70	79	87	91	96	80	73	71	67
1978	40,336	23,837	59%	70	75	67	74	80	80	85	85	82	77	72	72
1979	38,790	22,868	59%	73	65	61	71	77	79	87	82	77	73	64	70
1980	41,030	23,027	56%	68	61	66	69	75	78	88	86	85	70	68	68
1981	39,944	23,092	58%	64	69	66	67	76	85	84	82	79	74	72	71
1982	42,334	22,839	54%	68	66	67	68	79	74	86	88	81	75	66	61
1983	40,302	21,966	55%	67	61	62	66	70	78	85	85	72	67	66	65
1984	39,078	21,680	55%	63	62	60	65	69	75	82	76	78	75	64	65
1985	44,006	22,667	52%	65	58	65	69	73	84	96	82	74	67	66	68
1986	41,990	21,447	51%	59	61	61	64	68	78	80	79	73	66	68	68
1987	41,964	21,777	52%	65	65	66	66	67	78	76	77	76	69	65	66
1988	44,436	21,507	48%	65	63	64	64	73	74	81	77	68	68	64	61
1989	44,756	22,217	50%	64	65	57	66	73	77	86	89	87	71	60	60
1990	43,552	20,577	47%	63	58	58	65	70	76	70	71	68	59	64	66
1991	42,304	19,813	47%	59	57	58	59	64	66	74	72	71	61	57	63
1992	44,578	19,959	45%	57	59	58	63	66	76	73	70	68	57	59	60
1993	43,034	19,345	45%	58	53	58	54	67	71	67	71	66	63	59	56
1994	44,881	19,959	44%	62	57	60	62	64	70	72	81	64	63	65	64
1995	44,710	18,205	41%	55	53	51	57	58	62	72	70	56	56	56	56
1996	45,038	18,130	40%	53	49	52	55	55	65	77	68	59	53	53	54
1997	45,289	17,619	39%	52	50	48	53	51	60	70	73	62	55	52	52
1998	44,437	17,037	38%	51	50	50	52	59	58	66	65	58	54	45	49
1999	43,540	16,551	38%	50	45	49	47	54	59	64	62	56	51	51	48
2000	45,389	16,282	36%	48	48	44	48	57	58	54	63	61	50	47	49
2001	44,960	15,445	34%	48	46	43	48	53	56	57	52	53	50	43	47
2002	46,712	15,805	34%	48	47	42	51	49	58	60	57	56	47	47	44
2003	46,061	14,955	32%	42	42	46	47	48	52	53	58	53	46	46	46
2004	45,881	14,415	31%	44	42	39	43	47	50	52	56	50	47	42	41
2005	44,803	13,651	30%	44	44	40	40	45	48	49	51	42	41	39	44
2006	45,926	13,050	28%	40	37	38	42	41	46	48	45	45	39	40	42
2007	47,025	13,576	29%	39	37	40	41	43	49	51	51	46	44	38	43
2008	48,006	13,725	29%	41	35	40	41	44	42	47	53	46	40	40	41
2009	47,314	12,724	27%	40	36	35	38	39	43	43	43	41	39	36	36
2010	47,493	12,189	26%	38	36	35	32	39	39	42	41	39	38	34	35
TOTAL 1969-2010	1,743,439	819,773	47%
YEAR	DEATH REGS	SMH DEATHS	RAW SMH %	JAN	FEB	MAR	APR	MAY	JUN	JUL	AUG	SEP	OCT	NOV	DEC

This page is owned by Ryerson Index Inc, a non-profit organisation incorporated under the laws of New South Wales, Australia. The last update was May 18^th, 2011.